This invention relates generally to the fabrication of integrated circuits.
In the fabrication of integrated circuits, it is desirable to use a variety of different materials over a variety of different substrates. Sometimes materials that an engineer would like to use over a given substrate are incompatible with that substrate. By “incompatible” it is intended to mean that the upper material cannot be deposited onto the lower layer with sufficient adherence to the lower layer to avoid delamination.
Thus, commonly, in order to adhere these incompatible layers to one another, special deposition techniques are required or adhesion layers must be provided between the incompatible layers.
It is also desirable in a variety of applications to form nanowires or very small electrical conductors in semiconductor integrated circuits. Commonly, the deposition of such small conductors is extremely difficult. Moreover, to form a conductor, such as a copper conductor buried in other material, involves a large and cost ineffective number of process steps.